Exercise Caution when it comes to Bad Advertising

I really love the idea of tactical advertising, where the ads relate to their specific environment. There are some great examples out there, like the famous BMW vs Audi billboard battle that took place in California. Audi had a billboard up saying 'Your move, BMW.' To which BMW replied simply, 'Checkmate.' Check it out at http://www.bmwblog.com/2009/04/13/billboards-war-bmw-vs-audi/

Another good one is when the two ad agencies Ogilvy and the Jupiter Drawing Room entered into a rivalry at Cape Town International Airport: http://10and5.com/2009/04/ogilvy-vs-jupiter-agency-beef/

And then there are the times when a good old generic ad may have been better. I was driving home on the N1 North, and just before the Neotel offices there's been a billboard up for a while in the signature Neotel orange. It says something like 'Change your service provider without changing your number'. Fair enough.

Now their arch-enemy Telkom has placed a billboard quite a distance before theirs. It is in the bright Telkom blue, and says something to this effect: 'Remember to exercise caution when you see orange.' The word 'orange' is in a shade similar to Neotel's.

The average person battling through the traffic is not going to a) read Telkom's billboard and remember it until b) they actually notice and read Neotel's before c) putting the two together and going, 'Ooh, clever, clever, Telkom!'

Most likely that people will just wonder what Telkom means with the message. Hey, maybe they'll get some credit for helping us out with the rules of the road.

P.S. I owe Telkom an apology. I noticed yesterday that their billboard is actually close to Neotel's offices, which are bright orange. So the chance of someone noticing 'Remember, exercise caution when you see orange' and then seeing the Neotel offices is quite high. That said, I still don't think the message is that clever. 


It just feels a little lukewarm. It's not a 'shut up' message like BMW's 'Checkmate'. Instead, it's a verbal shrug that says 'be a bit careful' - but once I check Neotel's rates and find them favourable, then is it a green all-systems go?